Natalie Melo
Topic: 2012 Presidential election
Research Question: What are the key issues of the upcoming 2012 Presidential election?
Hypothesis: Although already stating that he will not participate, if he had actually decided to run in the 2012 election for the new president of the US, real estate agent and celebrity Donald Trump would not have a successful chance of winning.
Comments, Connections, Questions
Summaries/Notes
  1. he wasn't ready to leave the private business sector, PLUS he was gaining A LOT of $ from his businesses
  2. he just wanted publicity with the birther issue, because I'm pretty sure that in order to be president Obama had to prove that he was born in the US anyways --> the birther issue brought down some of Trump's popularity as he was now seen as a little silly once the whole situation ended
  3. http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Trump/Taxes.php
  4. http://2012trump.com/
  5. it seems like if he ran for president he would spend too much time focusing on how bad of a president he thinks Obama is rather than promoting the good things about him that would make him qualified as president
  6. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20055274-503544.html
  7. he turns to the media too often
  8. I doubt that most of America would take him seriously, especially because of the fact that his TV show "The Apprentice" makes his campaign seem silly (i.e. several cartoons of Trump pointing a finger at Obama & yelling "you're fired")
  9. would he tax his own company too as a part of his immediate solution to national debt, or would he save his money instead?
  10. on the flip side, there could have been a chance of him winning b/c of his uninspiring opponents (unlike when Obama ran for president as the first black president & sparked national attention, especially from America's youth)
  11. http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/16/trump.president/index.html?iref=storysearch
  12. Maybe add a paragraph explaining how his celebrity status could affect the polls à people who like his show might be more willing to vote for him, he could have great influential business partners that are willing to help out in the campaign, celebrities on his show who like him might be more willing to make commercials supporting him, he might add corruption to the election
  13. I wonder what he would do about the war in Afghanistan … I wonder if he even cares about such matters anyways
  14. It seems as though he is more interested in improving the US domestically rather than internationally, which can be a good thing if he were more experienced with foreign matters and could handle those decisions on the side (like Obama could probably do if he were elected again)
  15. http://2012.democratic-candidates.org/Obama/
  16. http://www.cfr.org/experts/world/barack-obama/b11603
  17. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-admits-gear-made-china-labels/story?id=13472355
  18. http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Donald_Trump_China.htm


Rough Draft + Possible Outline:


  • Republican
  • May 16th, 2011: announced that he is NOT running in presidential election as a possible Republican candidate -- he was very "torn" by the decision
  • Trump believes that if he tried to run in the election then he would definitely win
  • responsible for birther issue where Obama finally issued his birth certificate -- attracted much attention to the media as he claimed to have sent "investigators" to Hawaii to find out whether Obama was really born there
  • wants simple tax code, but less taxes overall b/c of unfairness - willing to abolish marriage tax
  • conservative Club for Growth group called him a "tax-hiking liberal whose open flirtation with single-payer health care and warm embrace of protectionism disqualifies him from consideration by conservatives."
  • pro-gay
  • practicing capitalist
  • supports controlled abortion, but not in late terms
  • supports private universal health care system
  • strict on immigration - believes citizens should have more resources/opportunities
  • his immediate solution to national debt = one-off 14.5% tax on wealthy individuals/private entities w/ net worth of at least $10 million
  • "foreign relations and the military is his Achilles Heels"
  • "running for public office cannot be done half-heartedly."
  • wants to raise taxes on imported Chinese goods -- believes that China is one of the main causes of US debt
Possible Outline of Paragraphs:
  1. Intro – introduce 2012 election, explain how Trump was thinking about running up until recently when he dropped out of the race, thesis
  2. Body paragraph #1 – foreign relations + military : inexperienced,
  3. BP #2 – taxes : describe what he wants, describe conservative concerns,
  4. BP #3 – national debt : describe his immediate solution,
  5. Conclusion – restate thesis, briefly explain that Trump would have lost, “but on the other hand ..” Trump could have possibly won b/c of uninspiring opponents, maybe predict a possible winner?

Pictures:
external image trump-for-president-20123.jpgexternal image trump-for-president-legitimizing-illegitimate-candidates-political-poster-1302532126.jpg